Russians began to certify screenshots of correspondence more often

Russian citizens and business representatives are increasingly turning to notaries to provide evidence, and such notarial action is especially in demand in the online space. Since the beginning of 2025, notaries have recorded evidence online about 11.5 thousand times. The press service of the Federal Notary Chamber (FNP) told Izvestia about this on June 6.

Most of these notarial actions were in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Moscow region. Krasnodar Territory, Bashkiria and Tatarstan are also among the leaders. At the same time, when compared with the same period last year, the Republic of Tyva (+137%), the Orenburg Region (+96%), the Smolensk Region (+73%), the Kamchatka Territory (+71%) and the Vladimir Region (+55%) showed the greatest growth dynamics.

"In order to protect their rights and punish those responsible, the affected citizens and legal entities go to court, and they need really strong arguments. In principle, the law does not prohibit the use of self-taken screenshots on a smartphone or computer as evidence. But, as practice shows, such evidence is often recognized as inadmissible, and lawsuits remain without satisfaction," the FNP said.

For example, sometimes the courts do not accept screenshots due to doubts whether the website in the screenshot matches the Internet resource specified in the disputed contract. In addition, the reasons for rejecting the claim include the absence of a date and exact time stamp for taking screenshots, as well as information about who took them.

Such evidence may be needed in cases of online harassment, cybercrime, and business resolution.

"But notarized screenshots have increased evidentiary value by law. that is, it will not be necessary to confirm the authenticity of the evidence additionally. The notarial protocol for examining evidence on the Web does not have a statute of limitations, which means that deleting or editing recorded publications on the Internet will no longer save the other party from responsibility," the department explained.

Earlier, on April 10, it was reported that from the results of a Kaspersky Lab survey, one in ten children is confronted with offensive messages and memes on the Internet. Also, in order to offend a person, they resort to creating groups and public sites.